Reagan Rails At Subsidy Costs

March 05, 1985|By Raymond Coffey, Chicago Tribune.

WASHINGTON — Pressing his case for federal budget cuts before an audience of reluctant county officials, President Reagan argued Monday that taxpayers could save money by handing out free airplane tickets to Amtrak rail passengers on the New York-Chicago run.

A renowned believer in anecdotal evidence, Reagan also contended in a bristling attack on federal subsidies in general that ``it would have been a lot cheaper to buy everyone a limousine`` than to provide a $1 billion subsidy for a mass-transit system in Miami.

Reagan, whose first term produced deficits running close to $200 billion, assailed what he called ``indefensible subsidies`` provided by the federal government and reeled off several examples.

He said Amtrak rail subsidies, for instance, cost taxpayers $35 every time a passenger boards a train. But on the New York-Chicago run, he claimed, ``it would cost the taxpayer less for the government to pass out free plane tickets.``

The $1 billion subsidy to help build a mass-transit system in Miami, he said, ``is another head shaker.`` It serves fewer than 10,000 daily riders, he said, which comes to ``$100,000 a passenger.``

In a speech to the annual legislative conference of the National Association of Counties, Reagan acknowledged that in the past he has been

``one of the strongest boosters`` of the federal government`s revenue-sharing program with state, county and local governments.

Now, however, he is proposing to abolish $4.6 billion in revenue sharing

--including nearly $2 billion to counties--as part of his deficit-reduction plan.

``General revenue sharing has served us well,`` Reagan said to the county officials.

``But the fundamental question remains: How can we afford revenue sharing when we have no revenues to share?

``How can the federal government justify--strapped as it is with a deficit--borrowing money to be spent by state, county and local governments, some of which are running surpluses?``

Reagan said that he sympathized with the county officials` broad opposition to abolishing revenue sharing but that ``the federal spending dollar is not magic, and it certainly isn`t free.``

Philip Elfstrom of Kane County, Ill., president of the association, said later that he generally agreed with the need to reduce federal deficits and promote economic recovery but that those goals cannot be achieved ``on the backs of local government.``

Incoming association president Robert Aldemeyer, of Kenton County, Ky., said, ``There`s no way, if the money isn`t returned to us, that we can operate local government.``